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6 Domestic clients 6.1 Who is a domestic client?
Guidance for duty holders that work for domestic clients can be found A domestic client is someone who has construction work carried out on their
in the: own home, or on the home of a family member, which is not carried out in
• Industry guidance for principal designers (CDM15/2) connection with a business.
• Industry guidance for contractors (CDM15/3)
• Industry guidance for designers (CDM15/4) Local authorities, housing associations, charities, landlords and other
• Industry guidance for principal contractors (CDM15/5) businesses may own domestic properties but they are not a domestic client for
the purposes of CDM 2015.
Industry guidance for clients
If the work is in connection with a business attached to domestic premises, such
as a shop, the client is not a domestic client.
6.2 What should a domestic client do?
A domestic client is not required to carry out the duties placed on commercial
clients. Where the project involves:
• o nly one contractor, the client duties must instead be carried out by the
contractor as well as the duties they already have as contractor for the
project. In practice, this should involve doing little more to manage the work to
ensure health and safety
• m ore than one contractor, the client duties must be carried out by the
principal contractor as well as the duties they already have as principal
contractor. If the domestic client has not appointed a principal contractor then
the duties of the client will be carried out by the contractor in control of the
construction work.
In many situations, domestic clients wishing to extend, refurbish or demolish
parts of their own property will, in the first instance, engage an architect or
other designer to produce possible designs for them. It is also recognised that
construction work does not always follow immediately after design work is
completed.
If they wish, a domestic client has the flexibility of agreeing with their designer
(in writing) that the designer co-ordinates and manages the project, rather
than this role automatically passing to the principal contractor. Where no such
agreement is made, the principal contractor will automatically take over the
project management responsibilities.
Annex D is a flowchart showing the transfer of client duties from a domestic
client to other duty holders.
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